1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording and reproducing apparatus and more particularly to a recording and reproducing apparatus for reproducing and dubbing content of audio data, video data, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
A reproducing apparatus for reproducing a storage medium such as a CD or a DVD is widespread at present. A personal computer (PC), etc., having a dubbing function of allowing audio data read from a CD to be stored on a different storage medium such as a hard disk is commercially available.
In recent years, an art of reproducing one music CD while storing the music data stored on the music CD on a different storage medium has been proposed (for example, refer to JP-A-2002-203361 and JP-A-2003-228907).
JP-A-2002-203361 discloses the following technique as shown in FIG. 17. FIFO (first-in, first-out) 1 used as a dubbing buffer and FIFO 2 used as a reproducing buffer are provided. First, audio data read from a CD is transferred to the FIFO 2. While the audio data stored in the FIFO 2 is read and reproduced at a reproducing data rate (single speed), audio data for dubbing is read from the CD at double speed (higher than the reproduce data rate), the read audio data is transferred to the FIFO 1, and the audio data is stored in a hard disk 6. This process is repeated.
However, in the technique disclosed in JP-A-2002-203361, the audio data stored in the FIFO 1 and FIFO 2 is not subjected to a compression process and is raw audio data read from the CD. Thus, the capacities of the storage areas of the FIFO 1 and FIFO 2 need to be taken large, leading to an increase in cost; this is a problem.
In the technique disclosed in JP-A-2002-203361, when data underrun of the FIFO 2 used as the reproducing buffer is detected, it is necessary to interrupt reading the audio data for dubbing, read the subsequent reproduce audio data from the CD, and store the read audio data in the FIFO 2. If reading the audio data for dubbing is interrupted, of course, the time required for dubbing the audio data onto the hard disk 6 is prolonged and the dubbing efficiency is degraded.
On the other hand, JP-A-2003-228907 discloses the following technique as shown in FIG. 18. An apparatus includes a compression process section 12 for reading audio data at double speed from a reproduce section 11 and performing compression process for the read audio data to provide compressed data, and a recording medium 13 having a data record area 14 for recording compressed data from the compression process section 12 and a temporary record area 15 for recording audio data intact from the reproduce section 11. The audio data recorded in the temporary record area 15 of the recording medium 13 is output to a signal processing section 16 at the reproduce data rate (single speed).
However, in the technique disclosed in JP-A-2003-228907, as in the technique disclosed in JP-A-2002-203361, the audio data recorded in the temporary record area 15 is not subjected to a compression process and is raw audio data read from a CD, etc. Thus, the capacity of the temporary record area 15 needs to be taken large, leading to an increase in cost; this is a problem.
JP-A-2003-228907 also discloses the following technique. When dubbing a CD recording 80-minute music at quadruple speed, for example, the audio data corresponding to the first 20 minutes is recorded in a temporary record area 15, for the first 20 minutes, the audio data recorded in the temporary record area 15 is output to a signal processing section 18 at the reproduce data rate, and for the audio data corresponding to the remaining 60 minutes, audio data recorded in a data record area 20 is read at the reproduce data rate, and the audio data subjected to decompression process in a compression-decompression process section 19 is output to the signal processing section 18, as shown in FIG. 19. Accordingly, the capacity of the temporary record area 15 can be lessened and the storage medium of the CD, etc., in a reproduce section 11 can be released early.
However, in the technique disclosed in JP-A-2003-228907, the audio data output to the signal processing section 18 is switched from uncompressed audio data to compressed audio data. Thus, the audio quality may be degraded suddenly. Therefore, it is difficult to keep constant the sound quality level of audio provided for the user; this is a problem.